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Showtime’s ‘Waco: The Aftermath’ Boosts Media’s Jan. 6 Narrative

Trailer, PR push strain to connect Texas siege with Trump-inspired riot

Actor Michael Shannon once dismissed Trump voters in the cruelest way possible. It’s “time for the urn.”

Now, the actor is part of a Showtime project trying to connect the FBI’s 1993 siege near Waco, Texas that left nearly 80 dead to the January 6 riots.

“Waco: The Aftermath” arrives 30 years after the tragic attempt to arrest Branch Davidians for illegally stockpiling weapons, among other serious accusations.

Waco: The Aftermath (2023) Official Trailer | SHOWTIME

The 51-day standoff ended in fire, bloodshed and death, and while a subsequent investigation cleared the U.S. government in key areas it left a stain that partially inspired the Oklahoma City bombing two years later.

The Texas tragedy fueled the 2018 miniseries “Waco” starring Taylor Kitsch as Branch Davidians leader David Koresh. “Aftermath” continues that story. Shannon, who played FBI negotiator Gary Noesner in the original project and in the sequel.

Other returning cast members include Shea Whigham as FBI agent Mitch Decker and John Leguizamo, who earned an Emmy for his portrayal of ATF agent Jacob Vasquez in “Waco.”

‘WACO’ Official NEW Series First Look Starring Michael Shannon & Taylor Kitsch | Paramount Network

Showtime is revisiting the subject for reasons beyond dramatic tension. The trailer, and the accompanying press material, connects the Waco siege with the Jan. 6 riots that killed one Trump supporter, an unarmed military veteran named Ashli Babbitt shot dead by Capitol police officer Lt. Michael Byrd.

Here’s part of the Showtime press release on the series, which makes its streaming debut April 14 before the official April 16 launch.

The New Limited Series Foreshadows the Rise of the American Militia Movement and the Resulting Jan 6th Attack on the U.S. Capitol … The five-episode limited series also provides a broader context for the escalation of the American militia movement, which foreshadows the infamous attacks of the Oklahoma City bombing and the storming of the U.S. Capitol on January 6.

The trailer is blunt in suggesting the Waco siege made events like the Jan. 6 riots possible, but new footage from the Capitol chaos could prove inconvenient to Showtime.

House Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) gave Fox News’ Tucker Carlson exclusive rights to 41,000 hours of surveillance footage captured from the Jan. 6 riot. Media outlets, panicked by the news, alternately decried the decision and suddenly demanded they get their own copies of the footage.

The media and government narrative on the riot remains in lock step two years following the incident. Trump supporters violently attempted to overthrow the government to install the outgoing president following what they viewed as a rigged election.

Except the Democratic-controlled Congress has held back hours, and hours, of footage from that fateful day until last month.

We also know the rioters weren’t collectively armed and ready for insurrection. Only a very small minority of rioters brought guns with them, and none discharged them during the melee. An earlier FBI report found little evidence of a planned, prolonged “insurrection.”

Other questions remain. Did government forces help provoke the riot? How many rioters were admitted peacefully into the Capitol, as opposed to storming the august building?

If the Jan. 6 media/Democratic narrative crumbles, it wouldn’t be the first time unfolding events upended a Showtime project. The cable channel aired “The Comey Rule” miniseries after the Mueller Report failed to find proof of collusion between President Trump and Russia.

Later, more facts emerged which destroyed the miniseries’ narrative in toto.

Showtime didn’t pull the project, nor did any fact-checking body focus on its lies.

Photo: Ursula Coyote/Courtesy of SHOWTIME

12 Comments

  1. Honestly, if I were Paramount right now? I’d shut down Showtime. Showtime just won’t let this disgusting lie go. The lie known as Jan 6th.

    1. Nor the Waco lies. They could have arrested Koresh anytime he went to town but chose instead to raid the compound and murder women and children.

  2. Trump lost and you people lost your mind. Everyone at the Capital on Jan 6 should spend their lives in prison. You’re all so insane.

    1. Wrong. The election was stolen and you support communism. That’s makes you evil and you refusing to expect reality that Jan 6th was a set up made by your God emperors, Joe Biden and Nancy Pelosi.

    2. Wrong. You’re the insane on by blindly believing that Jan 6th was an “attack” when really, it was a set up made by your God empress, Nancy Pelosi.

  3. Four Trump supporters were killed by the gubmint gangstason J6 and Showtime is obviously Deep State propaganda.

  4. There is a straight line from Waco to Oklahoma City to January 6th. A straight line.

    Maga jackasses will eat broken glass if orange daddy tells them it tastes good, and now you all just spoon-feed all the same lies to one another, you have no idea what the truth tastes like anymore.

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